Meet Kevin Morgan, poet and promotion scriptwriter at Thames in September 1969

Reading Time: 3minutes

Very few of Thames staff have aspirations that stop at what they have already achieved. Secretaries clamour to become PA’s, researchers or even international film stars! Researchers cast a hopeful eye on reporting or directing vacancies and whilst reporters consider the prospect of having their own show one day, directors try on the producer’s chair for size. Even when someone has made it to the top… well, there’s always the odd knighthood, mention in the Birthday Honours List or royal tea-party to look forward to!

Photographed by Gerald Sunderland

It is this aspect of working in Television that makes interviewing people so interesting. You never really know what unexpected ambition, interest or achievement you’ll be surprised with next.

What this long, rambling introduction is leading up to is that there is a 24-year-old poet working in Promotion. Kevin Morgan, who recently left the Wardrobe Department at Teddington to become a Promotion Scriptwriter at Television House, is having some of his poetry published by Corgi in an anthology compiled by a Scot called Pete Morgan. Two of Kevin’s poems have been used on John Peel’s radio show and he has written lyrics that have been accepted by the Herd pop group.

Kevin’s writing success is not confined to poetry. He has also had television scripts used on Mike and Bernie’s show and ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’. Two of his plays – one a drama and the other a comedy are currently being considered and another may be used by his brother, who runs a theatre in Edinburgh.

Kevin eventually wants to write full-time, specialising in drama rather than comedy but experimenting with every medium.

Happy Hippies

A day in the Park
with a multitude of youth
with a multitude of mind
with no trouble of any kind
listening to the sound
sitting on the ground
feeling the tones
of the Rolling Stones
in concert… in freedom … in the Park.

Imperial War Museum

Images on film once men, now dead.
Stare at the living with glassy eyes
From their position on the wall.
Over the heads of the crowds they can
See the weapons of their destruction Housed in this very same hall.
Living crowds mingle with the tanks and guns
That brought death for so many.
They are polished with loving care
By a caretaker who was never there
To see the death masks of disembowelled
Troops: He does not smell the sadness in
This monument to mens madness…

I think of you

When I see beauty expressed in flowers
I think of you.
For you have seen that beauty too.

When I see love expressed by a smile
I think of you.
For I have had that smile from you.

When I hear music that’s softened my soul
I think of you.
For I know you have loved it too.

When I see sorrow, sadness and grief
I think of you.
You have had your share of sorrow too.

Switch me

Switch me on and switch me off
Turn me round and set me back
Switch off my brain and lock my eyes.
Thoughts and ideas I have no lack
But you shut me up because you are wise
If I cannot speak I tell no lies
And if I cannot speak I tell no truth.
So wind me up and run me down
Switch me on and switch me off.